STUDENTS at Alamitos Intermediate School in Garden Grove with their Sweet Cases (GGUSD photo).

Students from Alamitos Intermediate School in Garden Grove wanted to offer hope to children in the foster system.  Last month, students put their heads together and developed the concept for Sweet Cases, an alternative for the trash bags typically given to foster children to carry their belongings to and from foster placements.

The National Junior a Society students at Alamitos Intermediate School sold sweets to raise money for the project.  With the money raised, students purchased duffel bags for 27 foster care kits from the Together We Rise Foundation. The bags or Sweet Cases contain blankets, teddy bears, hygiene kits, coloring books and crayons.  To offer foster students a sense of hope, students decorated the bags with colorful images and inspirational quotes.

The Garden Grove Unified School District serves most of Garden Grove and portions of Santa Ana, Anaheim, Westminster, Cypress, Stanton, and Fountain Valley.

Raise, budget goes before HBUHSD board

A half-percent increase in wages for all employees, along with the 2017-18 annual budget, will go before the Huntington Beach Union High School District Board of Trustees when it meets on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

The board will consider the wage hike for the complete list of district workers, including teachers, counselors, bus drivers, managers and the board itself. The increase would be effective July 1, 2017.

Also on the agenda will be a public hearing on the proposed budget. That document is based on projections from the state budget, as well as enrollment figures, which are expected to remain flat at around 16,000 students.

The HBUHSD serves Huntington Beach and most of Westminster and Fountain Valley, as well as Midway City and a small portion of Garden Grove. The board will meet at the district office at 5832 Bolsa Ave., Huntington Beach.